FASH TECH FUTURE

The Met Ball is the most highly anticipated event of the year in the fashion industry calendar, where fashion is the focus and celebrities are the players of an entire evening dedicated to the glamour and elite. When It comes to envisioning the future of fashion with technology, my mind always jumps back to the scene in ‘Hunger Games’ where Katniss shows up on her TV show appearance and excites the audience with her flaring (literally on fire) dress.

Manus x Machina was one of main attractions this year, Manus meaning man made and machina representing the machines. The concept of the exhibition is to showcase and de-construct the DNA of haute couture and ready-to-wear couture pieces and to showcase “Fashion in the age of Technology.” Fashion and technology are merging and is the biggest most exclusive marriage of two billion dollar industries. 3D printing (which is undoubtedly the future of design) gave us ‘mushtari’ the wearable technology and we also had the front row of digital textiles creation and digital printing.

Fashion has always been at the forefront of innovation, and so has tech. To be alive in the most exciting times of technologic revolution; fashion and tech is the power couple of the century. I recently joined ‘Camden Collective’ a hub for start up businesses and creative individuals. A friend I met took me to a talk held at LSE. We stiffly sat ourselves down in a talk that involved technology by Ajaz Ahmed from AKQA, a creative technology solutions company.

A quote I will never forget ‘we live in an amazing world that is not so amazing’ – Ajaz Ahmed went on to say that it is worth noting how advance we have become as a human race, the technological age is actually amazing but not so amazing because to the younger generation it is so normal that the exciting innovative technologies are seen as ‘ok’ rather than as growth to the human race. Being a child of the 90’s myself, I feel it is one of the most exciting times to be alive – yet it is a curse and gift at the same time. While technology is changing the face of our living standards, creativity, ideologies and future somehow we are in some small way dependant on it.

However, to add fashion and creativity with technology (which stems from creativity itself) is the measure of how important creativity and fashion are to the innovation and advancement of the world and humans as a race. This year I attended the LCF MA Womenswear Fashion and Technology show at the Royal College of Surgeons. There were eight designers showcasing their collections on the day, each designer used technology to create their collections. Happy to be on the second row of what I thought was one of the best shows I have ever attended (including London Fashion Week)

While I was in love with all the collections, one stood out the most, Yawen Qian. Born to both parents who are doctors, Yawen showcased the most unique and intriguing representation of fashion and tech using medical influences and creating plastic handbags and dental dentures. Each collection was the perfect marriage of fashion, tech and ideas. It is not secret that fashion designers are taking fashion to the next level, using more than just a theme or concept to create their visuals. Couture fashion has always incorporated this since the dawn of fashion – yet we no we see this trickling down from the couture runways to your casual Fashion Weeks around the globe.

MA Womenswear Fashion & Technology | Yawen Qian

MA Womenswear Fashion & Technology | Yawen Qian

Fashion and technology is an inventive, ground-breaking and exciting venture that is constantly developing, growing and creating opportunities for new and upcoming concepts in fashion. To be part of such a fresh environment is a privilege and challenging as fashion designers and couturiers take FashTech to the next level.